Best of Barton - Barton County athletes made a statement at the Olympics, winning more medals than 44 nation-states
By Kurt Caywood of the Topeka Capital Journal

With the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad at an end in Athens, Greece, it's time for a final accounting.

The United States of America, 103 medals.
Russia, 92 medals.
Germany, 48. Bulgaria, 12.
Barton County, nine medalists in seven different events.

Yeah, Barton County, Kansas. Great Bend. You know, ex-Holidome right across the main drag from the Taco Hut. That Barton County.
Check the results. Former Barton County Community College track and field athletes took more medals from the 2004 Olympic Games than 44 nation-states.

More than Azerbaijan or Zimbabwe. More than North Korea or South Africa. More than Mexico, Mongolia or Morocco.

Obviously, this is a matter of creative collating. Barton's athletes weren't wearing the school's blue and gold uniform. They competed under the flags of their own native countries, seven different countries in all.

But as a clearinghouse for talent, BCCC's total of 13 Olympic track and field competitors in Athens was second only to Louisiana State's 17.

How? Simple.

"There are two things to do here," Barton coach Lyles Lashley said. "Track and school."

At their own level, the Cougars are laughably dominant. The men have won six straight NJCAA outdoor and six straight indoor titles. The women have won 13 of the last 15 indoors and 11 of the last 14 outdoors.

Detractors point to Barton track as the poster program for what's wrong with sports at Kansas community colleges, saying that its recruiting base in the Caribbean takes opportunities from in-state kids and ships them overseas.

This year, the Cougars will bring in a half-dozen Kansans on scholarship, including former Seaman thrower Aaron Lockwood. But for world-class jumpers and throwers, Lashley, like the line of successful coaches before him, recruits the islands by phone. Under Jayhawk Conference rules, he can pay only books and tuition. In all, he splits the equivalent of 10 grants among about 60 athletes.

"It's hard sometimes to talk kids into coming for, basically, books and a pencil," he said. "You kind of have to be a used-car salesman."

The school's tradition does a lot of the work, he says. Barton's reputation is strong enough in Jamaica, for instance, that on a recent vacation there, two radio stations called for interviews.

The program, he says, is about more than achievements on the track. That's his recruiting pitch and his message to critics all rolled into one.

"When I recruit them, I don't lie," he said. "I don't tell them there's a big mall or a big nightclub scene. I tell them if that's what they're after, go somewhere else.

"The main thing is they're coming here and graduating. They grow up while they're here."

As the world can attest, they also make their mark once they leave.

Kurt Caywood can be reached at (785) 295-1288 or kurt.caywood@cjonline.com.

BARTON MEDALISTS
Gold
Aleen Bailey, 4x100 relay
Derrick Brew, 4x400 relay
Veronica Campbell, 200, 4x100 relay
Beverly McDonald, 4x100 relay.

Silver
John Moffitt, long jump
Bernard Williams, 200.
Bronze: Campbell, 100
Brew, 400.

BARTON OLYMPIANS
Men
o Bernard Williams, USA, 200
o Derrick Brew, USA, 200, 4x400 relay
o Walter Davis, USA, long jump, triple jump
o John Moffitt, USA, long jump
o Stephen Jones, Barbados, hurdles
o Chris Pinnock, Jamaica, 110 hurdles
o Leevan Sands, Bahamas, long jump, triple jump
o LeJuan Simon, Trinidad & Tobago, long jump, triple jump

Women
o LaShauntea Moore, USA, 200, 4x100 relay
o Veronica Campbell, Jamaica, 100, 200, 4x100 relay
o Aleen Bailey, Jamaica, 100, 200, 4x100 relay
o Beverly McDonald, Jamaica, 200, 4x100 relay
o LaVerne Jones, Virgin Islands, 100, 200